WARNING! I HAVE POSTED THIS TUTORIAL IN HOPES OF HELPING PEOPLE TO ACHIEVE PERMANENT ROOT. NEITHER PPCGEEKS NOR I WILL BE HELD LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR PHONE.
A big thanks goes out to Zeife for making the custom kernels and making this all possible and to CarlaDarla for holding my hand when I first flashed the custom kernel. Without these two individuals this tutorial would have never have happened.
If you have a new Moment or one that Sprint has already updated with the CL14 Maintenance update, you would be better off reading elephant007's How To Guide here.
There are a couple of ways to root your Moment. One is done via a connection to a PC and is temporary, which means when you restart your Moment, you will lose root access. The second method, and the one that is outlined below, is the one that I recommend. That is because with the method below, once you are rooted, you will remain rooted even after restarting your phone. If done correctly, you should not lose any personal information or need to reinstall any apps.
The custom kernel is also faster than what is currently on your Moment. I have seen a drastic increase in speed when opening apps and switching home screens within Open Home 4.4. Below is a link to the latest version of the custom kernel, for users who have not yet had their Moment updated with the official CL14 update.
To see if you already have the CL14 update installed, go to Settings -> About phone and look under "Baseband version." If "CL14" is listed anywhere in the line, and you did not install the CL14 customized update from Zeife, download the Patched version of the kernel listed. I have posted below the latest versions of the kernels, as of 02/25/2010, mirrored on my personal web server. If you would like to check to see if Zeife has released a new version,
here is the forum that he posts his releases at and
here is a link to his MegaUpload directory.
SPH-M900_ZE12.1_KERN.tar.7z -
ONLY FOR MOMENT USERS WITHOUT THE OFFICIAL CL14 UPDATE!!
Currently you must use a Windows PC to flash the Moment. It is recommended that you do it on a Windows XP system if you have one available. Windows Vista and Windows 7 can be used (I made this tutorial on Windows Business) but you may have issues and could be required to restart the process from the beginning, if it fails. Software that you will need to flash the custom kernel are listed below. Install them in the order that they appear to ensure that you do not get errors when flashing.
- Samsung PC Studio - Get it here (free)
- Odin (2.93) - get it here (free)
- Moment OPs - Included in Odin package (free)
If you are not using a Windows XP system, you should set Samsung PC Studio to run in "compatibility mode SP3." To do that:
- Open the Start Menu, All Programs, Samsung New PC Studio and right click on the shortcut for "Samsung New PC Studio"
- In the Properties dialog click on the "Compatibility" tab and under "Compatibility mode" check the box
- Then from the drop down menu choose "Windows XP (Service Pack 3)" or "Windows XP (Service Pack 2)"
- Click OK and you have setup Samsung New PC Studio to function in compatibility mode
Unzip Odin.7z and the custom kernel to your desktop using either
7Zip (free) or
WinRar (trial). Now get ready because you are almost there!
- Place your Moment in "Download Mode" (hold down "volume Down" and the "Camera" button and then press and hold the "End/Power" button and the phone will turn on and enter "Download Mode")
- Make sure that the Samsung PC Studio is NOT running in the systray (by the clock) on your PC
- Plug your phone into USB cable attached to your PC and let the drivers install
- Double click "Odin Multi Downloader v3.98.exe" on your desktop
- On the main screen, in the top and bottom left, it should show that it has detected your phone
- Check the box for "One Package" and ensure that "Reboot" and "Protect OPS" are also both checked
- Click the "OPS" button in ODIN and navigate to the "Moment.ops" file on your desktop. Highlight the file and click the "Open" button
- Click the "One Package" button in ODIN and navigate to the custom kernel (SPH-M900_ZE12.1_KERN.tar). Highlight the file and click the "Open" button
- Click the "Start" button in ODIN to begin flashing the custom kernel. The whole process should only take a minute or two at the most. If ODIN gets stuck at "<1> setup connection..." in the status window in the bottom left, close ODIN and try again. If after closing and reopening ODIN you are still getting stuck at "<1>setup connection..." then please see the FAQ in post #2.
- When the custom kernel flash is completed your phone will automatically restart
- After your phone begins to reboot, unplug the USB sync cable and let your phone boot completely
Your phone is now permanently rooted. To begin removing some of the stock Sprint apps (like the Voice Control that will never stop running) you will need to download Better Terminal Emulator or another terminal emulator from the Android Market.
Once you have downloaded and installed the terminal emulator (from here out I will refer to it as TE) you can start the app. Then type the following commands, without the apostrophes ('), if you so choose to rid yourself of Sprint's bloatware:
- Type 'su' and the "$" prompt will change to a "#"
- Type 'mount -oremount,rw /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system'
- Type 'cd system'
- Type 'cd app'
* Note: Each command is typed one line at a time. Use the return button on your keyboard to enter each command.
You are now in read/write mode in the apps directory, which means that you can get rid of the Sprint apps and clean up your phone. To backup a file before you remove it, you can type the following (again without the apostrophes):
- Type 'cat VSuiteApp.apk > /sdcard/VSuiteApp.apk'
The command above tells the system to copy the VSuiteApp.apk file to the root of the SD card, in case we want to install it again later. Then, to remove an app and completely unistall it, type the following (again without the apostrophes):
In the two examples above, we copied the VSuiteApp.apk app to the SD card and then removed it from the phone's main memory. VSuiteApp.apk is the app "Voice Control" which is always running. I personally didn't like it, never used it, and hated that it always ran, so it was the first that I removed.
When you are done removing apps that you no longer want, you must type the following, (again without the apostrophes):
- Type 'mount -oremount,ro /dev/block/mtdblock3 /system'
The command above resets the system to read-only and stops you from making bad mistakes.
* Note: You should always remount the system to read-only when you are done.
To make all changes permanent you must reboot your phone. You can also do that from with BTE by typing the following (again without the apostrophes):Here is a complete list of apps that have been removed and do not cause adverse side effects to your phone:
amazonmp3_1.4_standard_signed.apk - Amazon store to buy music (I removed it)
Bejeweled.apk - Bejeweled demo (I removed it so that I could install the full version)
com.handson.h2o.nfl.apk - Sprint NFL (I didn't have it)
Email.apk - email client (I left it)
nascar09_prod.apk - Sprint Nascar (I removed it)
SprintTVWidget.apk - Sprint TV Widget (I removed it)
Sprint_App_Updater.apk - Sprint's updater for their apps and who knows what else (I removed it)
VSuiteApp.apk - Voice Control (I removed it)
Weather.apk - Weather Channel (I removed it)
You can also type 'ls' (without the apostrophes) in the TE when you are in the /system/apps directory and get a list of all apps there. I actually ran into a slightly different name for Sprint TV and after listing the contents of the directory I knew the name so that I could go ahead and remove it.
For a complete list of root commands, the steps to hard reset your phone and more, check the FAQ in post #2.
Good luck and happy rooting!